Business Affairs and Consumer Protection

Empowering Businesses and Protecting Consumers

The Flagged Business List

The Flagged Business List is an initiative to target “problem” businesses in Chicago’s neighborhoods. This initiative, which has been in effect since April of 2012, is a data driven list that isolates businesses with two or more violations pled liable over the past twelve months. After filtering a list of candidate businesses based on identified problem trends, a monthly list is published. The strategy affects all establishments with business licenses–particularly those that serve as conduits for criminal activity. Working with neighborhood, religious and elected leaders, the Department links violations and complaints received from various City agencies to either aid businesses in coming into compliance with City codes or build a case for revocation of these businesses’ licenses.